Switch Unplugged
by Gwen Luthael
Summary: Simply put, switch's story, how she was unplugged and how she came to work on the Neb. rated for language and violence
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the matrix, it owns us.

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A young woman in her early teens sat in the crowded cafeteria, mumbling to herself under her breath and sketching furiously. Lately, she had been having weird dreams- floating endlessly in a sea of pink goo, and when she tried to surface, tried to breath, she found that she was suffocating. She tried to tell her friends about it, but they didn't understand.

"Maybe you need to take a break from school," her older sister and guardian said worriedly, feeling her temperature.

She didn't understand either. And today, in math class, while she was staring at the endless rows of numbers on the blackboard, something bizarre had happened. The numbers wavered for a moment, and turned green. She blinked her eyes furiously, and they returned to normal.

_What is happening to me? What is going on?_

"Sydney, you're not listening to me." The girl - Sydney was her name - looked up.

"You must not have been saying anything important then," she said in her usual dry way.

"Sydney," her friend looked pathetically needy. "Please! I need you to walk me home. Those guys near my house have been acting really weird lately. I'm scared! But you know they'll never do anything with you around."

"Alright Fiona, fine!" Sydney's pale eyes met Fiona's dark brown puppy-dog ones. "Honestly. You'd fall apart without me."

Sydney dragged her fingers through her shoulder-length white-blond hair and looked around, her pale eyes constantly moving. Despite her earlier bravado, she was actually almost as frightened as Fiona. _I'm just better at hiding it, _she thought.

Fiona lived in a part of the town that was practically overflowing with gangs. It was especially dangerous for Fiona to go home by herself, because she was young, pretty, and a well-known wimp. No matter what someone tried to do to her, she would let them. She was weak, she couldn't help it.

Sliding her hand into the pocket of her white sweatshirt, Sydney felt the comforting small item - a switchblade. She was extremely proficient with it. Hopefully, just the sight of their target accompanied by an armed 'escort' would deter anyone following Fiona.

* * *

Sydney hustled Fiona along, one arm around the girl, the other clamped firmly on her knife. Suddenly, she noticed movement in one of the dark alleyways the two girls were passing. 

"Hey, were ya goin', babe?"

"Dammit!" Sydney swore under her breath. Phoenix, an ugly, zitty gang member had his hand on Fiona's arm. "Let her go," she said in an icy voice. Fiona wimpered.

"Yah? Or you'll what?"

The switchblade was out before Phoenix could blink. "Or I'll gouge your eyes out with this, one by one."

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Yes, i know it's really short... the next chapter will be longer, i promise! 

-gwen


	2. Chapter 2

Phoenix took a step back, releasing Fiona. "Just havin'a little fun you crazy knife chick!"

Sydney advanced, brandishing the weapon. "Maybe I am crazy. And if I am, well, I wouldn't mess with me."

The gang member's ugly features twisted into a grimace. This pale female was a very obvious threat to his macho-ness.

"Piss off!"

"Alright, don't have to bite my friggin head off," he said as he ran.

Sydney laughed out loud, high on adrenalin. "See Fiona, that's the only way to deal with these freaks!"

Fiona smiled gratefully. "Th-thanks Syd, I should be okay from here."

Fiona smiled gratefully. "Th-thanks Syd, I should be okay from here."

Sydney blinked. "What? why did you just -" a cold shiver of fear ran down her spine. "I - I gotta go. See you in school." Then she turned and ran, shaking her head furiously, as if to get rid of the memory. _Something is very wrong, _she thought.

* * *

Sydney blinked tiredly, scrolling up and down the countless images and words on her computer screen. _Someone, please help me. I know you're out there. Help. Please._

"Dammit! I need to know!" she yelled, crunching her keyboard with her fist.

Suddenly, her screen went black. "What? what's going on?" She pressed Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Esc, Ctrl+x, but the moniter remained blank.

Then, green words appeared on the screen. _Do you know the question? _they said.

"What is this, some kind of virus?" the teenager whispered. She knew it wasn't.

The words appeared again. _Do you know the question?_

"What is the matrix?" The words escaped her lips before she could stop them.

_Yes. The answer is looking for you, Switch._

"How do you know that name?"

_We've been watching you. If you want to know the truth, wait for us Switch. We will come for you._

Then her screen went back to normal. Only then did she realise that she spoke the words, not typed them. "They _are _watching me," she hissed. "How did they know what I said?"

* * *

A man in a dark suit smiled. "We have the name of their next target. The name is Switch."

* * *

The next day in school, duringmath, Sydneysaw the green columns of numbersagain. "Help me, whoever you are," she whispered, a quiet but desperate plea for salvation.

"Miss Marando?" Her math teacher was looking at her strangely. "Is there something wrong?"

"No Mr. Smith . . . I just-" Sydney stared at the middle-aged man in shock. His face was distorting, stretching, changing. "What the hell?" Sydney yelled.

The kid sitting next to her didn't seem to notice anything was wrong. Suddenly, his cellphone rang. He answered it in confusion. "I thought I turned this off," he muttered. Then, "It's for you," he said, handing the phone to Sydney.

"Hello?" she whispered, eyes glued to the transforming man in front of her.

"Switch, if you want to live, you must do exactly as I tell you." The voice was one she'd never heard before, male, deep, and calm.

"Help me, dammit, don't give me any cryptic shit." She was almost crying with fear.

"Run Switch, run now!"

Suddenly, the math teacher's face stopped melding, and was now the face of someone she'd seen once before, on t.v. _He's that terrorist hunting guy, _Sydney realised.

"Miss Marando . . . what a pleasant surprise."

Sydney stood there for a moment longer, frozen like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching car. Then she bolted.

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Well? you like? hate? press the review button- you know you waaant to! 


	3. Chapter 3

Sydney ran out the door, hearing gunshots behind her. A piece of the tile floor flew up and cut her ankle. She ignored it.

"Help," she panted into the phone. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Switch, be calm. You will get out alive if you do exactly as I tell you." Despite hissmooth tone, Sydney heard the underlying tension in the man's voice.

"Yeah, okay. What do I do?"

"There is a janitor's closet coming up to your right. It's locked, but the key is on the ground nearby. You have to get inside and close it as fast as you can."

"But what about the-"

"Switch, trust me. I promise it'll be okay."

Sydney shoved the cell phone into the pocked of her jeans. _Okay eyes, don't fail me now. Where the frig is that key? _

Seeing the shiny bit of metal, Sydney stopped her sprint down the hall, shoes skidding on the polished tiles of the floor. She grabbed it, all the while acutely aware of the dark-suited man following and shooting. She jumped up, jamming the key into the lock, and swung open the door. As she pulled it closed, she heard someone yell, "Alright, she's clear!"

Then she heard the explosion. "They chucked a grenade?" she yelled. "I could've died!"

The door swung open, revealing two African-American people. One, the female, wore dark red leather and odd-looking geometric buns all over her head. The male wore a long black trenchcoat and bizarre sunglasses that had no arms, but somehow stayed on his face anyway.

"Switch, I presume?" Not waiting for the teenager's nod, the woman handed her a handgun. "Just aim and squeeze," she said dryly. "Now let's get out of here before more agents show up."

"Wait," the man said. "Her phone."

"What about it?" Sydney asked.

"Turn it off," both said simultaneously. They gave each other a look that suggested this kind of thing happened often.

Sydney obeyed, but not without asking her usual question. "What for?"

"They can trace your position through it," the man replied. "Now come on."

Sydney learned very quickly how out-of-shape she was. "Were exactly is it," she panted, "that we're going?"

"Save your breath for running," the woman advised wryly.

Then they were outside the school, sprinting toward a waiting car. "Get in," the man motioned, then slid in after her. The woman somersaulted over the hood of the car, diving into the driver's seat and putting the pedal to the medal. There was someone else inside the car, a young Asian man who couldn't be that much older than Sydney herself. He raised a hand in greeting when she entered, then loaded the sub-machine gun he was holding.

"Switch," the man said, "I'm sure you have many questions, but I'm afraid that we have run out of time. The agents know about you, they know that you know."

"Know what?" Sydney interrupted, "and who the hell are you people?"

"My name is Morpheus," the man said. "The driver is Niobe, the gunner Ghost. But that isn't important right now. Switch, you know the question, the question which brought you here to us."

"What is the matrix?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, there aren't words that can properly describe it."

"We're almost there," interrupted the woman - Niobe. "You'd better skip the bullshit Morpheus, just give her the bare essentials."

Morpheus gave a small smile. "Very well. Switch, you are going to have to make a choice. You can keep on living this life, constantly knowing that something is wrong with the world, or you can choose to see the matrix for what it really is."

"Jeez Morpheus, that the best you can do?" Niobe shook her head as the car came to a screeching stop.

The four people ran quickly inside a nearby building, an old abandoned warehouse. "Hurry," Niobe said.

There was a small sitting area set up inside, with two red leather chairs and a table. There was a small silver container on the table, which Morpheus picked up when he reached it. He sat down in one, motioning for Sydney to take the other one. Niobe and Ghost left the room through another door.

"So," Morpheus said quietly. "This is it. This is the moment you've been waiting for your entire life." He opened the silver case, taking two small objects out, one in each hand. "Switch, from this moment on, there is no turning back, there is no second chance. You know there is something wrong with the world. I can't fully explain right now, but I can tell you this - you and every other human being on the planet are slaves."

"What?" Sydney shook her head. "What are you saying? That's not possible."

"Do you believe in fate, Switch?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I hate the idea that my life is already planned out, that no matter what I do, it's not my decision. I hate the idea of being under someone else's control."

Morpheus smiled. "I know how you feel." Then he opened his hands, holding out the objects in them. They were two small pills, one blue, one red. "Switch, if you take the red pill, I can help you break free of that control, and I can show you what the matrix is. If you take the blue pill, you'll wake up in your bed and think this was all a dream. You will never get another chance," Morpheus cationed as Sydney reached for the red pill. "If you take the red, you can never go back."

Sydney paused for the briefest of seconds. Yeah, she loved her family, but she had to know. She had to find the answer. So, she swallowed the red pill with the help of a waiting water glass.

"Thank you," Morpheus said quietly.

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well? what do you think? REVIEW OR BE STUCK WITH SPORKS!

-gwen


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry if this chapter isn't the greatest . . . I wanted to make it unique to Switch and not just copy the movie word for word.

-gwen

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Sydney waited for something to happen. Nothing did. "Well that was rather anticlimactic." 

Morpheus smiled. "Come with me." He got up and walked out the door where Niobe and Ghost had disappeared a moment ago. Sydney followed, but somewhat reluctantly. By some instinct, she felt that if she walked through the door, her life would change forever.

_It's a bit late for that, stupid. Your life has _already _changed forever._

Ignoring her (rather annoying) inner voice, she stepped through the doorway. It was like passing into another dingy, litter-strewnwarehouse the two had been in a moment before, this was a tiny, computer and technology packed room. A young woman with black hair, perhaps a bit older than Sydney sat at one of the moniters. She looked up and smiled as they entered.

"Still nothing, Morpheus."

Morpheus nodded. "We have time Trinity, don't worry. Niobe?" The African-American woman nodded and gestured for Sydney to sit in the only chair in the room. Then, pushing up the sleeves of the teen's shirt, she attached white sensors to her arms and temples.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"We need to moniter your vitals, in case you go critical before we locate your body in the real world."

"What do you mean, the real world?"

Niobe smiled. "Just try and relax. Your questions will all be answered in time."

Ghost looked up from his computer screen. "Irregular brain activity . . . the delusions have started."

"You're leaving?"

Sydney snapped her head around. Fiona was there, looking confused and panicked. "What are you - where did she come from?" She looked to Morpheus, but he just shook his head.

"I need you Sydney! Don't leave, you can't leave me!" Fiona reached towards her, starting to cry. "You know what will happen!" The tears turned red - blood. "You can't leave!" she screamed.

"Trinity, Ghost, hurry."

Fiona stumbled towards Sydney, who squirmed away, pressing herself hard into the back of the chair. "Don't leave me, please!" Blood started pouring down her face and she fell to the ground. She reached up and grabbed Sydney's hands.

"Auugh! Get away," Sydney said. She looked down in horror at her hands, now bloody. The red liquid started oozing upward. "It's cold, it's cold!" She shuddered and tried to wipe it off. "Help me," she yelled at the others, who, to her, appeared to be standing by impassively.

The blood was up to her neck now. "I got her," Trinity yelled.

Morpheus whipped out a cellphone. "Now Tank," he barked into the phone.

Sydney screamed.

And woke up.

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more soon! thanks to everyone who reviewed -- you guys rock

-gwen


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry it took me ages to get this up! We just had mid-terms at school, and I'm the stage manager of the play, and my choir is going on tour... oi vey, I have too much on my plate! Anyways, if I have any readers left, please enjoy!

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_Oh please no! Not the dream again! _Sydney was drowning in an ocean of pink goo. She gasped, or at least tried to, but there was something on her mouth. She reached up and felt a metal tentacle attached to a claw, which was covering her mouth. She pulled it off and tried to breath again, but only succeeded in swallowing a mouthful of the pink liquid.

Then she realised - _this is no dream._

She sat up, hoping - praying - that she would sit up in her bed instead of in this hellish gelatinous goop. Instead, she broke through some sort of membrane, and took her first free breath of air in her life.

She realized she was in some sort of pod, and when she tried to move to the side, she realized that there were dozens of black metal tubes attached to her arm, chest, legs and spine. She retched, but nothing came up. Or, if it did, it was too similar to the liquid she was already sitting in. Then, she looked around.

"Oh . . ." There was nothing to say. She looked up and to her sides - everywhere was the same thing. Thousands, millions, billions of pods, filled with pink goo and, in each one, a person. They stuck out of massive black towers like spikes on a mace, ugly and mechanical. _Who did this to us?_

"They're all . . ." But suddenly a strange hovering machine dropped down out of - _What? _thought Sydney. _Because you certainly can't call it a sky. _That was just like her, thinking of something cynical, pointless, or stupid to say in the face of danger, or very possibly death.

The machine folded out two long, claw-like arms that made it resemble a praying mantis. Then, it lunged forward and clamped around Sydney's neck. She grabbed it, and tried to pry it off, but she found that her arms were about as useful as two spaghetti noodles. She had no strength.

She felt something drilling into the back of her head, spinning and spinning, and she screamed, hoping someone would come and help her. If she hadn't been half-mad with pain, she would have taken the time to scornfully tell herself that everyone was asleep, or dead, or whatever. No one could help her now.

Then, inexplicably, the pain stopped. The mantis-robot released her and she fell with a splash back into the goo, reminding her how weak she really was - she had been relying on the machine to hold her up.

There came several popping sounds from behind her, and her spine arched in pain. The metal cords attached to her where detaching, ripping themselves forcefully off from her skin.

She heard a mechanical thunking sound, like the hatch of a submarine opening. Then she felt it - the liquid was most definitely draining out of her pod, taking her with it. Sydney had time for one extremely offensive and descriptive curse before shooting down a pipe that scraped painfully against her bare skin.

She had no time to react when the pipe ended, or she would've tried to grab onto the opening. As it was, she shot out into the dark, cold air and landed with a splash in a seemingly endless underwater lake of what she fervently hoped was water.

Sydney's foot brushed against something rubbery as she tried desperately to kick and keep herself afloat. She gasped, which only ended up in her swallowing more of the greyish liquid. Her mind briefly flitted across wondering what the thing was, but she made herself focus on not drowning. Her strength faded quickly though, and, taking one final gasp of air, she went under.

Vaguely, she made out a ray of light penetrating the icy cold water. _So that's it - I'm dead, _Sydney thought. _And that's just the light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, that's good - so this wasn't real. It's just . . . purgatory. _

And, wondering idly whether she'd be in heaven or hell when she woke up, Sydney closed her eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

"How is she?"

"All right, I guess. She needs a lot of work, but then, they all do."

Sydney opened her eyes. "Is this heaven?" she croaked.

Someone leaned over her and smiled. It was Trinity. For the briefest moment, with the light shining down from above on her, she looked like an angel. "No. You're not dead. You're probably the most alive you've ever been, actually."

"My - why does everything hurt? Why do my eyes ache?"

"Just try and rest, 'mmkay?" Trinity smiled. "Everything will be answered soon."

* * *

Sydney closed her eyes with relief – it was far too much effort to keep them open. She was lulled back to sleep by the steady humming of something mechanical.

Sydney opened her eyes and found herself staring directly into a pair of brown ones.

"Holy shit!" the person yelled, and jumped backward. It was a young guy, perhaps a few years older than her, with curly hair and a needle in his hand. "I'm sorry," he gulped, "I was just- I just wanted- I'm supposed to give you your injection," he finally managed.

Sydney laid a hand over her wildly beating heart. "That . . . was a really shitty way of waking me up."

The guy looked affronted. "I didn't wake you up. You just . . . woke up."

Sydney shrugged.

"So, you're Switch?" Sydney paused a moment before answering. Was that really who she was? A tough, secretive hacker?

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm Switch." A tiny smile curved the corners of Sydney- no, Switch's mouth. _Switch. _She liked the sound of that.

The guy stuck out his hand. "Apoc."

Switch raised an eyebrow at him. _Who shakes hands? _she thought. But instead of looking embarrassed, he just held it out, waiting for her to take it. Giving a tiny shrug, the girl took his hand, gave it a firm squeeze, then dropped it.

"C'mon," Apoc said. "The captain will want to talk to you, now you're awake."

Switch got up off her bed, holding onto it for support. Her legs were shaky. She looked down and saw that she was dressed in rough, loose, woven clothes and boots made of strips of cloth. "This is a little primitive," she commented, sticking one foot in the air as proof.

"Of course it is," Apoc said, giving her a funny look.

Switch stopped dead. "You know, you people never exactly explained where we are, anyways. And what the hell was with the hallucinations?" Suddenly she was getting mad. It was her tendency when things happened she didn't understand. "Did you drug me up, then drag me someplace?"

"No, whoa, hold up." Apoc looked a little worried. "Listen, I know this has to feel weird for you, but you just have to trust me. Morpheus has the answers you want."

Switch noticed something weird. Her head felt cold. "What the . . ." Switch felt her smooth, bald head. _They shaved me? _She followed the curve of her head all the way back to the nape of her neck, and felt . . . it. Switch's legs collapsed under her. "Is this a cult?" she whispered. "You drug people up and kidnap them, shave them and stick metal holes in the back of their heads?"

"No! Oh shit . . . listen, trust me, please! Just stay right here, stay here, I'm getting Morpheus." Apoc turned tail and ran out of the room - _more like a cell - _leaving the door open.

_Now's your chance, _a tiny voice told Switch. _Go now! _The ghost-white teenager staggered to her feet and bolted out the door, wishing she had her knife with her. Her booted feet thudded rhythmically on the metal grating that was the floor. She came to a fork. Her panicking brain froze for a moment, then she dove left-

-right into the arms of a huge black guy. "Whoa there, girl, where you think you're going?"

Switch looked up at him defiantly, then burst into tears. He scooped her up, cradling her head gently in his arms. "Hey, it's okay. I'm Dozer. You're Switch, right, little ghost-girl?" Switch nodded, squinching her eyes part-way shut, trying to stop the tears from coming.

"You can cry, ghost-girl. Most do worse, you know. You seem strong to me." Dozer's voice was steady and soothing. "You healed so fast." He was walking back to the cell.

"Don't make me go back in there," she whimpered, then internally cursed herself for sounding like a petulant child.

"Don't worry, this has to be strange for you. Just stay calm." They were inside the cell now. Dozer lay the bald, weeping girl on the simple cot. Then he sat next to her and talked. He spoke about the people he knew, telling endless stories. Gradually, the feeling of panic subsided, and Switch drifted off to sleep to the sound of his voice.

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Sorry it took so long to get this up... exams were making me crazy! but school's over now! YAY! so, i'll be able to update faster now.


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